masoud naghashzadeh

Cinema is an influential art form within the cultural landscape of a country. The relationship between the audience's interest in films and the works produced by artists is mutually influential, each impacting the other. One key and vital factor in the appeal of a movie is how the characters are portrayed. Compelling and authentic characters can transform the experience of watching a film into an emotional and intellectual journey for the audience. This research explores the main characters in popular comedy films produced in Iran over the past decade (2013-2023) to better understand the audience preferences for cinematic characters. This understanding of taste may lead to works that better attract audience attention. To achieve this, four films, namely Fossil, The Singer, Hezarpa, and Sperm Whales 2: Roya’s Selection, were analyzed using a descriptive-analytical approach from the perspective of character development. This study evaluates the characters concerning their physical characteristics, psychological traits, and social attributes (professional). Through a deep analysis of these characters, specific rules and patterns were identified as likely to be favored by the comedy cinema audience in Iran. These rules and patterns, aside from aiding filmmakers and screenwriters in creating desirable and engaging characters, can also shape the audience's taste for a particular type of comedy cinema.

Parody is considered to be one of the most important literary genres that has undergone significant semantic changes over the years and has been incorporated into various forms of art, including cinema. Pedro Almodóvar is among the filmmakers who have utilized this concept in their works. This research aims to analyze the use of parody in Pedro Almodóvar's films. The theoretical framework of this study is based on the views of Gérard Genette and Linda Hutcheon. The research question is, "How has parody been embodied in Pedro Almodóvar's films?" To answer this question, a descriptive-analytical and comparative method has been applied. The films "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" (1984), "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (1988), and "Talk to Her" (2004) have been purposefully selected and analyzed as case studies based on the theories of Gérard Genette and Linda Hutcheon. The findings suggest that certain sequences in Almodóvar's films align with the dimensions of parody according to the perspectives of both thinkers.

In recent years, new Romanian films, which respond to the social reality, have emerged as a new cinematic movement and have attracted the attention of critics in film festivals. Long take is an aesthetic approach considered as one of the realistic factors in Romanian new-wave cinema. André Bazin, one of the most influential theorists in the history of cinema studies, delineated the aesthetic of realism and advocated filmmakers who are known as realists by privileging the long take and depth of field associated with it over montage, which distorts the representation of reality according to his belief. This article intends to use the combined approach (descriptive-analytical method) and analysis of reality representation based on the film theories of Bazin, to investigate the long take as the principal element of configuration cinematic realism in the Romanian new wave cinema. For this purpose, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (directed by Cristi Puiu) has been studied in terms of stylistics and formal analysis as one of the most well-known cases and pioneers of the Romanian new wave cinema. In The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the long take acts as the method of reality representation and presents “the real” ambiguity, which is the aesthetic essence of cinematic realism

The Sacred is defined in the tradition world, and examining its representation in narrative cinema as a modern phenomenon is a significant issue. Traditionalists believe that sacred matters can take on a form of art known as sacred art; however, they lack a clear and comprehensive perspective regarding its representation in cinema as a modern phenomenon, with which they are in conflict. The importance of this research lies in finding a mode of representing sacred matters in cinema based on the views of traditionalists. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore and elucidate how sacred matters are represented in cinema from the perspective of traditionalism. This research employs qualitative and library-based research methods to investigate and examine the views of traditionalists on this matter. To achieve this, the foundational concepts of traditionalist thought related to this research, such as the concepts of tradition, sacred matters, and sacred art, as well as the allegorical style as a style close to sacred art in cinema, have been explicated. The findings of this research indicate that, just as traditionalists seek sacred art in a specific form characterized by qualities and characteristics corresponding to the divine world, these features can be found in the allegorical style. The allegorical style, in terms of representing sacred matters, functions similarly to sacred art, using specific elements to portray sacred matters. Thus, the use of the allegorical style in representing sacred matters in cinema, based on the views of traditionalists, holds promise and borders on something called sacred cinema. In the current research, 6 films, The Emigrant, Faraway so Close, The Song of Sparrows, The Foothhold, A Piece of Bread, and Paradise, have been examined, and the results indicate the function of transcendental style in the representation of the sacred.

Film adaptations are one of the most significant branches of comparative literature studies and are of great importance to the field. The concept of film adaptations, which are so-called transpositions, is a component of Gérard Genette’s theory of hypertextuality, a subset of the broader theory known as transtextuality. Pedro Almodóvar is one of the few filmmakers whose work exhibits a unique affinity for literature. This article analyzes the adaptation process of the film “The Skin I Live in” (2011), directed by Pedro Almodóvar and adapted from the novel “Tarantula” (1984), written by Thierry Jonquet, by addressing the question, ‘How did the adaptation process work in “The Skin I Live in” based on Gérard Genette’s theory of hypertextuality?’ Here, the literary work is studied as the hypotext and the film as the hypertext. This paper employs the descriptive-analytical method. Considering that transposition occurs due to the change of medium, it first defines the terms “adaptation” and “transposition” as well as explaining Gérard Genette’s theory of hypertextuality. It then analyzes the transformation of the text during the process of adapting the novel into the film. The findings show that “The Skin I Live in” is a transposition in the sense of its hypertext due to the various transformations made, with an emphasis on excision, concision, extension, and substitution in this adaptation.

The relationship between cinema and painting has long been considered a subject of interest. Pedro Almodóvar is a prominent and progressive filmmaker in new Spanish cinema. His movies are marked by a distinct style and an idiosyncratic aesthetic expression. Frequently, Almodóvar has acknowledged being influenced by various sources. Almodóvar should be counted among the filmmakers whose films have a strong connection to the art of painting. He is one of the directors whose works are fundamentally based on an aesthetic framework of painting. The use of paintings as part of the cinematic mise-en-scène and the recreation of famous paintings within the cinematographic frame are considered to be the primary relationships between Almodóvar's works and art. However, sometimes these connections transcend facile associations and require greater effort to sufficiently be comprehended.Almodóvar employs various techniques of reference for oeuvres from classical painters such as Diego Velázquez, and Titian; modern artists like Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Edward Hopper, and Picasso in addition to even the abstract painters like Piet Mondrian and Mark Rothko. This feature places him among the directors exhibiting a unique knowledge of painting in their films. The present research conducts a qualitative analysis of paintings in Almodóvar's films. This study aims to examine painting in Almodóvar's cinema by posing the question of how Pedro Almodóvar's films have been influenced by painting. This developmental research utilizes a descriptive-analytical, comparative methodology and a theoretical framing approach to study the modes of cinematic allusion based on Gérard Genette's intertextuality theory and Linda Hutcheon's theory of parody. Case studies include the prominent works of this filmmaker from the 1980s.The findings indicate that the cinematographic frames in Almodóvar's films have been transcribed from painting in various ways. In the first case, the relationship between the cinematic frames and the paintings is a simple intertextual allusion, whereby the filmmaker, inspired by a painting, recreates it in the cinematic frame, known as tableaux vivant. At times, these allusions transcend a simple association and take on a metaphorical quality, forging a particular connection with the world of the film's characters. In some cases, the intertextual relationship leads to a multilayered connection that generates a new texture of allusion and trans-contextualizing occurs, a concept derived from the theoretical dimensions of Linda Hutcheon's parody, which is perceived as a significant feature of modern art. In some instances, the relationship between Almodóvar's cinematic frames and paintings follows an ironic inversion, whereby a form of allusion and imitation is observed but with a repetition that contains differences, possibly employed for purposes such as critique or recreation. In some cases, Almodóvar uses the frame as a painter's canvas, employing cinematic techniques to create scenes reminiscent of abstract paintings.

Pedro Almodóvar is a renowned and influential director in contemporary Spanish cinema whose works have a unique style and aesthetic presentation. Almodóvar has frequently stated that his films are inspired by various sources. This Spanish director drew inspiration for his works from various movies, TV programs, paintings, and literary works. Meanwhile, film references and scripts play an important role in his works, and he is one of the directors whose works incorporate a combination of such texts. Thus, “intertextuality” is one of the topics that can be properly examined in this Spanish filmmaker’s works. This research investigates intertextuality in Almodóvar’s works and answers the following question: “How are Pedro Almodóvar’s films created through their intertextual links with other films?” A descriptive-analytical method and comparative method were used to address this question. In addition, Gérard Genette’s theory of intertextuality has been used to analyze and categorize such intertextual relationships. The statistical population of this research consists of Almodóvar’s feature-length films produced during the 1980s, which are regarded as his most renowned works. The results demonstrate that the various cinematic texts mentioned by Almodóvar, such as cinematic excerpts, script titles, and cinematic allusions, within Genette’s theory take on the roles of para-texts, quotations, cinematic references, and inter- and intra-authorial allusions, which, in addition to their conventional functions, have a metaphorical function.

Nowadays, many of the television series are location-based, and they have only a main fixed place. In some successful series of this category, it seems that the fixedness and lack of variation of the place (location), Not only doesn’t prevent the emergence of narrative, meaning and significant facilities related to the location, it also provides new opportunities. The main aim of the current study is to identify the semiotic-phenomenological aspects of place Transformation in location-based TV series. Therefore, the "Khane Sabz" series served as the research sample in order to answer the question of how a fixed place in a TV series can undergo different meaning changes and transformations. The research employed a Paris school semiotics method. Data collection involved taking notes from library resources and textualizing the research sample. The findings show that the place can take on multiple metaphorical attributes and undergo different transformations in despite its fixedness. Moreover, place in such a series can progress towards a transcendental state; and by transitioning into space, it can endow the series with varied phenomenological and significant effects, such as the quality of genius loci.

The structural approach to narrative, especially literary and dramatic works, makes it possible to identify internal mechanisms and discover the hidden structural patterns and study how these works are constructed. This research concerns the application of Todorov’s narrative model capacities in the analysis of storytelling sequences concentrating on the application of one of the most effective narrative structural patterns to the design and development of storytelling sequences. This research has used a qualitative method with a narrative analysis approach in which purposive sampling has been conducted. Data gathering methods include focusing on observation, published books, and articles. Based on Todorov’s narrative theory, it would be possible to identify and clarify the basic structural units of TV drama. For the structuralist analysis and expansion of Todorov’s narrative pattern capacities, the Strange Things series has been chosen as a case study. This study shows that Todorov’s narrative theory is widely used in the analysis of the narrative structure of fictional serials and its subsequent structure is consistent with the structure of television dramas.

This research has been carried out to explore the process of object semiotization in TV series and intend to recognize the role of object conversion to sign in developing drama. Therefore, this paper analyzes ‘Khaneh Sabz’ (Green House) and the Big Bang Theory series. The series that most of their narratives occur in just one location and their structures take place in the same location over each episode, season and even after years. This research has been carried out based on a semiotics approache and accomplished through a literature review. This case study consists of selected location-based TV series focusing on the published books and articles for data gathering. According to the results, it can be stated that the process of object semiotization on TV series creates the potentiality that allows new signs to attend the syntagmatic axis. In the meantime, signs will be able to role-play in plot and associate with other drama elements. Also, it can bring a correlation between the signs and drama on the pragmatic axis. Applying object semiotization process to TV series initiates an arrangement and a code that series can use them regularly to create dramatic situations and develop drama during various episodes and seasons.

Risk management is basically an action plan for all projects that can minimize the effects of undesired events as you cannot fully get rid of such risks. All scheduled plans face the risk of unexpected trials, which embeds undesirable consequences. Film and TV productions usually are not executed as production managers, producers or movie planners expect. Many risk-based internal and external factors have the ability to cause minor or major deficiencies in the process of film and TV production both on the target time and their relevant cost. They may extend the runtime of the project or increase the cost of implementing them. Nowadays using empirical science, it is possible to anticipate risks and mitigate them. Risk management involves understanding, analyzing and addressing risks to make sure all activities achieve their objectives. The goal of risk management in a film or TV production project is to follow up on a risky project successfully with a minimum amount of adverse event occurrence before it happens. Regrettably, an investigation has shown that this method is still not considered by local film producers. This article tries to deal with a systematic approach in risk identification, analysis, prioritizing, control and treatment on film production projects. This approach also has the capability to provide mitigation strategies based on practical viewpoints of experts. The current study tends to present a sample risk management pattern just based on the “location” and “crew & equipment” categories. The approach has the capability of extending in other categories such as pre-production, production and post-production phases. The method provides the relevant critical risk factors using the “failure mode and effect analysis; FMEA”. In this context, the risk priority number (RPN) is calculated based on three different aspects. They are probability in occurrence (O) of risk, severity or impact (S) and the capability to detect their occurrence (D). The RPN can then be calculated by multiplication of O, S, and D, each of which is a positive value smaller than 10. Hence, higher RPN refers to the more critical risk and logically should be mitigated to prevent damage initiated by it. Owing to the fact that risk is inherent in everything we do, the type of roles undertaken by its professionals are incredibly diverse. Through a case study, thirty risk factors in the “location” and “crew & equipment” in the shooting-production phase have been identified. The most important are: uncertainty in weather forecasting, equipment failures, crew or actors’ absences, loss of natural light, inability to control the vehicle and blocking the streets. Subsequently, the FMEA is applied to rank them and a multiple criteria decision-making technique based on a simple weighted average method was realized to appraise the appropriate mitigation strategies. Results presented nine critical risk factors such as six ranked mitigation strategies. The most prominent treatment strategies are “considering an alternative shooting program”, “applying check sheets” and “monitoring and controlling day-to-day shooting activities”. It should be noted that results in other projects may vary, due to different film project structure and script requirements.

The unity of plot is the most important principle in classical drama. In Poetics, Aristotle prefers action to character and equates the unity of plot with the unity of action. Modern theories however, eliminate such a decisive differentiation between the character and the action and consider them highly interconnected. Changing the central character and replacing him/her with another character violates yet another principle of classical drama, namely the unity of the central character. In the present study, the analysis of observational data is utilized in order to examine the setup of the films with central character replacement using the theories of Aristotle and other theoretician influenced by him. Through observing and analyzing these films, it is concluded that in order to maintain the unity of plot they employ mechanisms such as attendance of the alternative central character in the causal chain, maintaining the unity of action, emphasizing on an unaltered theme, using the capacities of epic. The effect of the change of the central character on the unity of plot is associated with the extent to which these mechanisms are used. The possibility of maintaining the unity of plot increases with the number of utilized mechanisms. Otherwise, the change and replacement of the central character results in a hybrid plot i.e. there would be two separate plots.

The term "Stigma" derived from a Greek root and is used today to refer a feature, or attribute that is severely calumniously or disgraceful. In this study, according to the main origin of the stigma, Ajax and Medea tragedies of ancient Greece, have been selected to initially highlight the role of Stigma in the reading of these tragedies. At the same time, from psychological-sociological perspective, the main question is to what effect the stigma has been on the Ajax and the Medea Characters. Erving Goffman as one of the contemporary theorists of sociology studies has brought up many valuable viewpoints, which, some of them are notable in the performance studies and stigma research. With Utilization of Goffman’s “Dramaturgical Theory” and view on other important theories of Goffman such as “Role Distance” and “Stigma”, paper tries to give a comprehensive analysis of Ajax and Medea tragedies and to answer the research questions. The Goffman oriented interpretation of drama beside analysis of the Ajax and Medea personalities alerts a calumnious stigma, which have influenced by the actions of these two characters in their plays. This matter allowed to analyze and investigate on mental disintegration and their main actions under the shadow of the Stigma and Role distance created on their identities and society.